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When I pay to have something repaired, that's a job I couldn't do myself, or at least it would inefficient for me to learn. Paying to have my home cleaned feel
by aninhumer 9y ago
When I pay to have something repaired, that's a job I couldn't do myself, or at least it would inefficient for me to learn.
Paying to have my home cleaned feels uncomfortable because it's something I could do myself, so it makes it very obvious that my time is being valued more by society than the cleaner's.
- mirimir 9y agoI'm a consultant. When I'm maxed, I defer what I can, and then I pay people to deal with whatever I can't defer. If I have some slack, I do more myself. Especially what I enjoy. I generally find people who work for cash, and we negotiate fair prices.
- lmm 9y ago> When I pay to have something repaired, that's a job I couldn't do myself, or at least it would inefficient for me to learn. I don't think that works as an explanation. I have no compunction about buying hot food even though I can cook myself, and I'm sure I could easily have learned to repair a couple of things I paid to have repaired for me.
- aninhumer 9y agoWell I don't think the food comparison is entirely fair (it would take me a long time to learn to cook all the kinds of food I want to eat), but my point is more about perceptions. In most service industries, you have people serving many different customers at once in a way that's usually more efficient than every individual doing the work. But if I pay for a cleaner, I'm paying someone to spend time doing almost exactly what I would do otherwise. They're probably slightly faster than I would be, but otherwise there are no economies of scale obscuring the inequality, and that's what makes a lot of people uncomfortable with it.